El Pasoans are growing more concerned about the three data centers being built in the region, including one being built just across the New Mexico border in Santa Teresa. Construction is underway in Northeast El Paso for a $10 billion, (originally $1.5 billion) META datacenter that promises to create 1,800 construction jobs as it is being built and 100 jobs to keep it running when it comes online.
A second datacenter is being proposed by the U.S. Army for artificial intelligence (AI) use at Fort Bliss. In Santa Teresa, Project Jupiter is also planned for AI use.
Concerns Over Electricity and Water Grow
Controversies across the nation over the use of electricity and water have led communities to curtail datacenters in their communities. Officials in Denver, Colorado passed a one-year moratorium halting datacenter construction in Denver over concerns about the electrical grid’s capacity. In St. Charles, Missouri and in Rosemount, Minnesota, developers were forced to cancel plans to build a datacenter after local residents pushed back on the development. Voters in Festus, Missouri ousted every incumbent on the ballot after they approved a $6 billion AI datacenter in their city. And in Tucson, Arizona, the local city council pulled out of the $3 billion Project Blue datacenter over concerns of the water it would require top keep machines cool.
Earlier this month, the City of Tucson ordered Project Blue to stop using Tucson’s water for the construction of the datacenter. City officials discovered that although they had voted unanimously to oppose the project last year, a Project Blue contractor had requested a temporary water meter. Rather than use the water within the city, the contractor was transporting the water to the datacenter construction site outside of the service area. The developers now say that instead of using water to cool the datacenter, they will instead use an air-cooled system…